Moonlit
by Fallen Ark Angel
Summary: Laxus and Mirajane don't discuss much, but do enjoy one another's company. - One-shot, Miraxus Week Day 3: Magic Headphones


The night was still around them and there was hardly any other sounds, other than the ones they provided. For Laxus, this was a soft puffing at his cigar, burning a deep red at the end with each huff, while his girlfriend provided the music. Were they at home, this would have consisted of her strumming softly at her guitar and humming along for him, maybe even throwing down some basic melodies, but no, they were somewhere different this time around.

"I like it here," Mirajane had offered to Laxus after tentatively accepting his suggestion to end their date that evening not back at his place, but rather somewhere equally secluded and yet somehow much more scenic. The demon wasn't one for moonlit strolls, but out there sometime later, seated with the man on the edge of a rock formation, looking out over the forest surrounding Magnolia, well, it was rather beautiful.

"Yeah," Laxus had remarked as he clipped the end of a cigar, ignoring the face Mirajane made at this. Lighting up, he agreed, "I do too."

Sometimes the woman talked for hours. About the guildhall or its members. About her brother and his typical problems. About her sister and her second chance. She liked to go on and on about about Gramps and what he meant to her, as well as her dreams beyond caring for him and his hall.

And it wasn't as if Laxus was without his lengthy, long-winded tales of adventures gone by. He knew that there was no way that Mirajane was that interested or invested in his tales, and yet he found himself talking endlessly about them, in graphic detail, while the woman sat in with appeared rapt attention, but he knew this couldn't be the case. Oh, no. The woman was just very good at pretending.

Wasn't she?

Still, there were times, like that night, where everything sat just right and they found themselves only enjoying the company of one another, the comfort, nothing more.

Laxus found himself staring out, into the night, his eyesight strengthened slightly by his slayer lacrima, providing him something close to night vision, maybe. Mirajane, not nearly as lucky (but perhaps more so in that, as a demon, she preferred the darkness), found her head tilted back frequently, staring up at the stars above. They were so close to the city, even as far out as they were, that many stayed hidden, but the moon was bright that night, a brilliant ball shining down on them.

The winter had been quite frigid that year, but it was fading with each day and, though the night's wind had a bit of a chill to it, Laxus had given the woman his heavy coat after claiming immunity. Still, when she noted him shiver just slightly, she found herself scooting so close to him that she practically sat in his lap before tossing one half of the coat over him and, for awhile, they were content.

Then his cigar smoke became too much for the woman and she sacrificed the comfort and security of her boyfriend for something better.

He griped a bit, Laxus did, as he always would, when she just transformed like that. Into a new outfit. About how come she didn't just do that in the first fucking place, huh? But it was around his cigar and barely audible, so the demon let him off the hook.

She'd transformed into her own winter coat, mewling a bit to herself over how nice and snug and warm it was, even without the slayer cuddled up in it. As he only stared though, slightly peeved, he noted what else she'd summoned up.

Her headphones.

They were different than his own, more modern and sleek, wireless and no hassle at all for the magically inclined, but Laxus snorted at the sight, as he always did, because he knew what kind of music the woman enjoyed.

And if there was anything they differed on, it was their tastes in music.

Still, as she reclaimed her seat beside him once more, Laxus only puffed his smoke away from her while Mirajane reached a hand up to the right headphone, gracing a fingertip across the smooth surface in a way that must have activated it somehow as, immediately, both headphones began to play a soft, pop beat.

She giggled up at her dragon's lack of amusement.

They settled out that way eventually. Laxus puffed and she trained her eyes above, on the moon and the few stars that joined it, the stillness of the surrounding permitting her soft music to escape their headphones and tickle the man's ears as well. He didn't complain though, for once, accepting this as she at least somewhat did his smoke.

It was too nice a night to fight.

Eventually, he snubbed out his cigar and she instinctively pulled off one of the earphones, somehow knowing the man's intent to speak before he even found it.

"I bought my first pair," he remarked, nodding down at the hand where she now held one of the headphones, its music now broadcast a bit better, no longer resting against her ear, "with my first earnings. When I started taking jobs."

"Mmmm," Mira hummed, looking away from the moon just to capture his gaze. "I bought my siblings and I food for a few days."

Laxus paused, narrowed his eyes just a bit, before remarking, "Yeah, well, we all have priorities, I guess."

Her laughter filled the forest then, carried by the wind before she fell to the side some, to bury her face in the arm of his fuzzy coat, hiding her giggles there instead. And Laxus didn't exactly welcome this, but he certainly didn't pull away either. Only stared down at her in his blank way, feeling quite empty now, without his cigar to shield his expression behind.

"I bought mine," she began then as, slowly, she pulled her head back and stared up at him with her bright blue eyes, "right after Lisanna... When I… When I started on as bartender. It's actually better pay, or it was, than what I was pulling as a mage."

"Who knew that pervy old men tip better than monster ravaged villages?" Laxus remarked with a slight shrug and she didn't laugh this time, but her smile carried the same sentiment.

"I didn't know how much I needed music. Before then." Sitting back, she detached the other headphone as well, and the music stopped, leaving them only with their own breaths and softly spoken words. "I guess fighting was my...solace. On jobs or with the others, around the hall. Then I… Music was better, for channeling what I was feeling. After all that. It still is, somehow, even though Lisanna's back now."

With a nod, Laxus allowed the serious undertones of her statement to hang around them for a moment, heavy and intense, before breaking them up by remarking, "If you can call what you listen to music."

"Dragon-"

"It's subjective."

"Yeah, well," she remarked, holding her head higher then, "I really don't see how you get a vote in the matter anyways."

"How do you figure?"

"I make music. I craft it." She made a face up at him that time. "You couldn't even stomach it when I tried to teach you the basic guitar chords."

"The strings were hurting my fingers."

"Uh-huh."

"These hands were not made for blisters, Mira."

"Then what were they made for?"

"I think," he whispered then, as one of his hands came over to fall across her shoulders, pulling her closer once more, "you know."

And Mira snuggled into his side, which really was snuggling into his coat, but it was the same, him and the coat, one and the same, while whispering, "I love you. Dragon."

He only humphed, Laxus did, before reaching with his other hand to poke at her headphones. "You gonna turn the back on? Or am I supposed to brood in silence?"

Honestly, Mira could fall asleep, right then and there, out in the widlerness. She knew that wouldn't bode well for their long walk home and that they should head back that way, but still… They were having such a nice moment…

"Only if you want," she yawned softly. "Dragon."

"I want." Turning his head, he was able to bury his face in her soft white locks before whispering against them, "Demon."


End file.
